Current Campaigns
These are the campaigns that the Celtic League is currently engaged in:
Protection and promotion of human rights
Promoting and safeguarding the language rights of the Celtic peoples and campaigning to make the respective Celtic languages an integral part of the community in each country once again.
The Celtic League has campaigned extensively for almost half a decade on a broad range of different issues that have affected and continue to affect the Celtic countries. Our past campaigns are too numerous for them all to be all listed here in any detail. We have therefore categorized our campaigns into topics and by clicking on the following heading below you can discover more about some of the issues involved and how we are campaigning to further the aims and objectives of the League:
Human Rights
The protection and promotion of human rights runs through much of the work of the Celtic League. Over the last few years we have campaigned heavily for the rights of prisoners from the Celtic countries, in particular Breizh (Brittany) and Éire (Ireland). Two current campaigns that are active are the repatriation of Noel Maguire from Whitemoor Prison in England to Portlaoise Prison in Ireland and the welfare and repatriation of Michael Campbell, who is being held in a prison in Lithuania. The League is also still currently campaigning for the rights of seriously ill and terminally ill prisoners.
The League also has a long lasting concern about the human rights abuses by the French police and judicial system in their treatment of Breton political activist. In 1999 the French police rounded up numerous Breton activists without charge and put several of them in detention for many years. The League has been involved in the campaign to get the prisoners released and to clear their names.
In addition the League also works, in a limited capacity, for the human rights of other peoples in the world who we express our solidarity with e.g. the Tibetans, Maoris and the Basques. Over the last few years, the League has been particularly concerned about the abuse of political human rights by the Spanish state authorities in their banning of numerous Basque political parties and political publications. In connection with this the League has been highly concerned about Spanish anti terrorist legislation and court judgements, which has seen the arrest, prolonged detention and illegal dispersal of hundreds of people.
The League has also actively campaigned against anti terrorist legislation and the subsequent infringement of freedoms in countries as far apart as Mannin (Isle of Man) and New Zealand. This encompassed actively campaigning against the CIA rendition flights, which made stop overs at airports in Ireland and Scotland.
The League has been in regular communication with European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) for a number of years and we have been invited to present our views, on a regular basis, by the CPT on a number of topics related to human rights.
Another long term campaign by the League that is still active has been the fight for justice for families of the 61 people lost in the Aer Lingus Viscount Flight EI-712 crash in 1968 and to discover what went wrong.
Links:
Language Rights
Language rights are such an important aspect of the work of the Celtic League that it is contained in Article 1a of the League’s Constitution, which states that the organisation will work:
“….towards the restoration of the Celtic languages, which are essential characteristics of nationality for each Celtic country, as ordinary means of communication.”
The League regularly reports on the development of the Celtic languages to this end and campaigns for their return as a community speech language in all areas of life. The League takes part in various government and organisational language consultations to this end and is supportive of groups who have the aim of promoting and protecting the rights of the different Celtic language communities. We have always been supportive of the various Celtic language school movements in the Celtic countries and have criticised openly and welcomed decisions by various governments and local authorities that have reduced or increased support for such schools. The League has lately been instrumental in supporting the setting up a bilingual preschool movement in Cornwall.
Over the last forty years, the Celtic languages have seen a massive period of revival in the Celtic languages, especially in Alba (Scotland), Cymru (Wales), Kernow (Cornwall) and Mannin (Isle of Man). However none of the respective languages have managed to completely reverse the language shift from English and French and there is still a huge amount of work to do. Recently however the League submitted evidence to the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Select Committee, which was discussing a proposed Language Competence Order from the Welsh Assembly Government. If this is agreed to this would give the Welsh Government full control over Welsh language legislation and would give a real boost to the Welsh language in Wales.
We continue to campaign for a Irish Language Act in the North of Ireland and were represented at the last march organised by the Irish language organisation POBL in 2009.
The League has also been campaigning for the greater use of bilingual road signs in Scotland.
Of all the Celtic languages the development of the Breton language remains the biggest worry for the League. The French Government has still not ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Breton and successive governments have been antagonistic at best to the rights of Breton speakers. The Breton language consequently is in decline, even though it could have been one of, if not the strongest, Celtic language in existence today, in terms of speakers, even if minimal support had been given.
The French Government has told the League that the wording of the French Constitution makes it impossible for any other language other than French to be recognised. However, the French Constitution, like any other, can and has been modified regularly in the past. In 2008 the French Government made a limited concession in regard to the other languages of France, by slightly amending the Constitution to recognise the fact that ‘regional’ languages were spoken within its territory, including of course Breton. The League is concerned that this concession could be too little too late and will continue to campaign hard for the rights of Breton speakers.
The League has and are campaigning for the official recognition of the Celtic languages at an European Union level. We have subsequently seen the full official recognition of the Irish language in 2007 and the partial recognition of Welsh and Scottish. The League will continue to campaign in order to push for the full recognition of all the Celtic languages.
The Celtic League are signatories of the Universal Declaration for Linguistic Rights (UDLR) on which a resolution proposal was presented on 17th June 2008 at the United Nations headquarters (Palais des Nations) in Geneva, Switzerland, to promote within the United Nations a future UDLR for its adoption as an International Convention.
Since 2008 the League has sought to determine the commitment of the various police constabularies and forces that serve the Celtic countries to the respective Celtic languages. The League has contacted all the police forces to date, with the exception of those that serve Brittany. All the police forces have been generally positive and constructive in their responses and some have said that they would pursue the matter further in certain areas e.g. in 2008 the Isle of Man police constabulary said that it would add Manx Gaelic to all its police vehicles as a result of the campaign.
Cultural Rights
In many ways linguistic rights are indistinguishable from cultural rights, but because the League’s remit and campaign agenda is fairly broad already, it makes sense to treat these issues separately, although in reality there are many cross over points.
The Celtic League does nevertheless still campaign on issues that are more cultural than linguistic. One obvious area here is sports and our organisation endeavours to promote sports that are indigenous to the Celtic countries.
Over the last 12 months, the Celtic League has campaigned on a number of different areas related to sport in Alba/Scotland, including campaigning for the word ‘Alba’ to be written on the Scottish rugby kit, promoting the Scottish sport of Shinty, campaigning against the singing of racist and sectarian chants and songs at football matches and supporting separate Scottish teams in all areas.
The League also takes part in various sports consultations in order to raise the profile of traditional sports e.g. Scottish Government’s ‘Pathways into Sport’ consultation in 2008.
The League is also currently campaigning for the Irish Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) to recognise Scotland as a country in its own right rather than a county for the purposes of the GAA league.
Another sporting campaign by the League is to pressure the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to accept a team from Wales and Scotland in the 2012 Olympic Games in London, as has happened on previous occasions. The League also pressured the IOC to move the 2009 Olympics out of China if the Chinese authorities did not stop their persecution of Tibetans.
The Celtic League is currently campaigning to establish a Celtic Youth Council so that the voice of young people within the Celtic countries is better heard. Currently there is a British Youth Council and French Youth Council with representation on the European Youth Forum, which speaks on behalf of the Celtic countries, with no such equivilant in the other Celtic countries, with the exception of Eire (Ireland).
The League continues with its long standing opposition to the military recruitment of children in the school environment by the Ministry of Defence. This is a long standing campaign by the League and has focused in particular on school recruitment in Mannin (Isle of Man). The League has also encouraged governments in the other Celtic countries to oppose the military from visiting schools.
The League also promotes cultural diversity in the Celtic countries and the Kernow (Cornwall) Branch of the League recently became members of an organisation that helps to promote equality and diversity in Cornwall. The move is part of a general campaign by the League against racism, prejudice and discrimination.
Cultural symbols such as flags and signs also play a big role in the cultural identity of the Celtic nations. Due to the close geographical proximity and colonisation of the Celtic countries to two large, influential and powerful nations i.e. England and France, occasionally flags and symbols from these nations can create a feeling of cultural assimilation among the Celtic peoples. The Celtic League will continue to campaign for the sensitive use of flags and symbols from our non Celtic neighbours in an effort to avoid a feeling of being overwhelmed culturally and aggravating political and cultural tensions.
Recognition of our cultural heritage and history plays an important part in the role of our organisation. The League campaigns for the traditions of each of the Celtic countries to be recognised by the authorities and appropriate funding made available for their celebration e.g. recognition of national patron saints, teaching an appropriate decentralised school curriculum, plotting of ancient battle sites on maps.
The Celtic League continues to pursue its long standing campaign of the return of artefacts that are held outside of the Celtic countries to their original homes e.g. Chronicles of Man, Lewis Chessmen, Gold cape of Mold etc. Many of these artefacts are held within the same political state and international laws pertaining to the return of these artefacts to their place of origin should not be an issue. In the past a common argument was that appropriate facilities did not exist to keep the artefacts properly maintained, but today this argument is largely superfluous.
Human Rights
The protection and promotion of human rights runs through much of the work of the Celtic League. Over the last few years we have campaigned heavily for the rights of prisoners from the Celtic countries, in particular Breizh (Brittany) and Ireland. Two current campaigns that are active are the repatriation of Noel Maguire from Whitemoor Prison in England to Portlaoise Prison in Ireland and the welfare and repatriation of Michael Campbell, who is being held in a prison in Lithuania. The League is also currently campaigning for the rights of seriously ill and terminally ill prisoners.
The League also has a long lasting concern about the human rights abuses by the French police and judicial system in their treatment of Breton political activist. In 1999 the French police rounded up numerous Breton activists without charge and put several of them in detention for many years. The League has been involved in the campaign to get the prisoners released and to clear their names.
In addition the League also works, in a limited capacity, for the human rights of other peoples in the world who we express our solidarity with e.g. the Tibetans, Maoris and the Basques. Over the last few years, the League has been particularly concerned about the abuse of political human rights by the Spanish state authorities in their banning of numerous Basque political parties and political publications. In connection with this the League has been highly concerned about Spanish anti terrorist legislation and court judgements, which has seen the arrest, prolonged detention and illegal dispersal of hundreds of people.
The League has also actively campaigned against anti terrorist legislation and the subsequent infringement of freedoms in countries as far apart as Mannin (Isle of Man) and New Zealand.
The League is in regular communication with CPT
seem at times to be strongly linked to state politics.
One of our current and longstanding campaigns in this respect has been experienced by Breton protests
Language Rights
Cultural Rights
Monitoring Military Activity
Self determination
Environmental Protection
Socio-economic development
Human Rights
Alba (Scotland)
To stop use of Scottish airports in CIA rendition flights
Breizh (Brittany)
General human rights abuses by French police and judicial system in the treatment of protesters and detainees
Cymru (Wales)
Éire (Ireland)
Monitoring of human rights abuses by the police in the north.
Monitoring and campaigning for the rights of prisoners in Ireland and those prisoners kept elsewhere.
Campaign for justice for families of the 61 people lost in the Aer Lingus Viscount Flight EI-712 crash in 1968 and to discover what went wrong.
Kernow (Cornwall)
Mannin (Isle of Man)
Potential impact of human rights legislation on the rights and freedoms of the Manx population
International
Campaign to stop CIA rendition flights and for justice to be brought on those who broke the law.
Monitoring human rights abuses of Tibetans by the Chinese authorities and campaign for Olympic Committee to cancel Beijing Olympics 2009.
Treatment of Basque prisoners
Impact of human Rights legislation in New Zealand on the rights of Maori’s
Impact of human rights legislation in the UK on general populace and particular groups
Campaigning for the rights of terminally ill prisoners to ensure their needs are met according to highest international standards.
Language
Alba (Scotland)
Use of bilingual signs
Breizh (Brittany)
Campaigning for the French Government to ratify the European Charter for regional and Minority Languages, specifically for Breton.
Cymru (Wales)
Éire (Ireland)
Kernow (Cornwall)
Use of bilingual signs
Appropriate recognition for Cornish language in UNESCO Atlas
Mannin (Isle of Man)
Appropriate recognition for Manx language in UNESCO Atlas
International
Monitoring the development of the Basque language
Monitoring the commitment to the Celtic languages and culture among the police forces that serve the Celtic countries.
Military Activity
Alba (Scotland)
Use of Prestwick airport as a transit point for arms shipments to the Israeli Defence Forces
Breizh (Brittany)
Cymru (Wales)
Éire (Ireland)
Campaigning for the complete demilitarisation of the north by British troops
Kernow (Cornwall)
Watching brief on Devonport nuclear submarine base in Plymouth, Devon and campaigning for the movement of all nuclear submarines out of the area away from Cornwall and other Celtic country.
Mannin (Isle of Man)
International
Cataloguing and researching data relating to the movement of nuclear and other types of submarine in and around the Celtic countries.
Campaigning for the highest safety standards to be implemented on the RAF Nimrod aircraft and for its removal from bases in the Celtic countries.
Political
Alba (Scotland)
Monitoring the unfair political practises undertaken by the British secret services and UK Government in trying to undermine the campaign for self determination in Scotland.
Breizh (Brittany)
Cymru (Wales)
Éire (Ireland)
Kernow (Cornwall)
Campaigning for a Cornish Assembly
Monitoring developments within Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall, Cornwall County Council and Cornwall (Unitary) Council.
Mannin (Isle of Man)
Environmental
Alba (Scotland)
General monitoring of submarine bases at Faslane and
General monitoring of nuclear plants to ensure they reach all standards of safety and encouraging their closure.
Breizh (Brittany)
Monitoring of French nuclear submarine base at Ile Longue, Brittany
Cymru (Wales)
General monitoring of Y Werin nuclear plant in Anglesey to ensure it reaches all standards of safety, while at same time encouraging its closure.
Éire (Ireland)
Campaign against Shell plc gas pipeline in County Mayo and the excessive use of force shown by the police and government against protesters.
Kernow (Cornwall)
Mannin (Isle of Man)
International
Coastal and sea dumping of munitions by English Ministry of Defence e.g. Beaufort Dyke, Nancekuke
Threat of oil pollution along coasts and inland waters from oil tankers and the transfer of oil.
Campaign to close Sellafied nuclear plant and ensure that it meets international standards and criteria in all areas. Monitoring pollution caused by the plant.
Monitoring the munitions pollution of the coast lines in the Celtic countries.
Cultural
Alba (Scotland)
Breizh (Brittany)
Campaign for the reunification of Loire Atlantique area back into Brittany
Promoting independent media sources.
Campaigning for the French government to ratify the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, specifically for the Bretons.
Cymru (Wales)
Éire (Ireland)
Kernow (Cornwall)
For UK wide media to refer to Cornwall more correctly as a Duchy and Celtic nation, rather than always and soley as an English County.
Mannin (Isle of Man)
International
Socio-economic
Alba (Scotland)
Breizh (Brittany)
Cymru (Wales)
Éire (Ireland)
Kernow (Cornwall)
Mannin (Isle of Man)
Criticism of government’s drug and alcohol strategy
Campaigning to ensure that economic and financial corruption does not take place by companies and business individuals based on the Island and/or that they have no or little dealings with other companies that are involved in corruption, including in immoral practices e.g. arms trading.
International
Monitoring of the accountability and role of the police forces throughout the Celtic countries and England.